Free Railhead by Philip Reeve Page B

character.
    Other rays followed the first, hooting in confusion as if to ask where their prey had gone. They flew away along the beach. The first one circled for a time, puzzled by those still forms on the sand, but too stupid to understand that they were the same running figures it had been hunting a few seconds earlier. After a while it gave one last disgruntled hoot and flew away after the rest of its flock.
    When he was sure that the rays were gone, Zen sat up. From out there on the sand he could see the whole of Desdemor, the white facades of the waterfront buildings stretching southward like sea cliffs. At the southern end of the city, where he had never been, a high viaduct went out across the sea, reaching away and away into the haze that hid the horizon.
    “What’s that?” he asked. “I thought Desdemor was the end of the line?”
    Nova shook her head. “It’s the end of the K-bahn, but a single track line runs through the city and out across that bridge.”
    Zen shaded his eyes, looking at the viaduct.
    “So there’s another island out there somewhere?”
    “I suppose so. It’s not on the maps. I expect it used to be a hunting resort or something.”
    “We should go there and explore.”
    She grinned at him. “I’d like that. If there’s time.”
    The tide had turned. Small waves came foaming round them. Keeping watch for rays, they hurried back across reflections of Hammurabi to the promenade.
    *
----
    Raven did not approve of the game with the rays. One of his drones, cruising above the beach, had recorded the whole thing. When Zen and Nova returned to the Terminal Hotel, wet and laughing, shaking the sand from the folds of their clothes, he scowled and said, “You’re valuable, Zen Starling. You need to take better care of yourself.”
    “What about Nova?” Zen asked. “Isn’t she valuable too?”
    “You can’t lie as still as she can. If one of those rays sees you it’ll crunch you down like a biscuit. You won’t be laughing then.”
    “I’ve got to pass the time somehow,” Zen said, feeling cheeky and sure of himself, elated after the ray game. “How long are we waiting here anyway? How long till we go to meet the Noons?”
    “Soon,” said Raven. “Think you’re ready?”
    “Oh, I’m ready,” said Zen, in a posh boy’s voice, putting his hands in his pockets and standing in the lazy, laid-back way, which was how he played the part of Tallis Noon.
    Raven just looked at him. Then he strode off to the hotel’s gunroom and came back with a rifle. It was elegant and old-fashioned looking, with a wooden stock and ceramic barrel. “If you wanted to bait the rays,” he said, “you should have taken this. A good marksman could bring down a ray from a mile away with one of these. Of course, you’re not a good marksman, so you can link the gun’s computer to that headset I gave you; Nova can do the aiming for you and tell you when to pull the trigger.”
    “I can manage,” said Zen, although he had never even touched a gun before. Some of the kids in Cleave carried cheap, printed pistols, but he’d never bothered, because he could never imagine using such a thing. He was a thief, not a killer.
    “You’d better take it with you on the Noon train,” said Raven.
    “You think I’ll have to shoot my way out?” asked Zen.
    “I think it’s good to be prepared,” said Raven, and showed him how to put his fingerprints into the ray gun’s memory so that Zen was the only one who could make it work. “The Noons have big hunting reserves at most of their stations. You can tell them you’re hoping for some sport. A young Noon carrying a vintage ray gun won’t raise any eyebrows. The best place to hide something, Zen, is always in plain sight.”

12
    The first time Yanvar Malik killed Raven had been on Vagh, in a decaying mansion near the cobalt mines. It had seemed like a job for a drone, but Railforce had sent humans to do it: Malik and five others, slamming through the K-gates